1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to methods and systems for enhancing personal communications. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods and systems for mixing background effects with real communication data.
2. Background Art
Today, mobile communication devices have become an integral part of the daily life. As an example, cell phones have given people a newfound mobility that allows them to conduct their business on the go. Although this newfound mobility offers many advantages, any cell phone user would attest to the fact that moving from one location to another can affect clarity of cell phone communications due to changes in the background noise, in addition to the loss of privacy that follows the changes in the background noise, which can reveal the user's location. For example, as the cell phone user moves from the office environment to attend a meeting, the background noise continues to change from office noise to elevator noise, car noise, traffic noise, background conversation noise, etc. This continuous change in background noise not only affects the user and listening party's clarity of communication, but also it is an intrusion into the user's privacy who may not wish his location or travel path to be recognized or made known to the listening party.
Similar to audio communications, a video communication device user may also wish to obstruct his background view during video communication for privacy or aesthetic reasons. However, existing communication devices offer no choice to the users who do not wish to reveal their locations or background environment, other than the alternative of limiting the users to placing the calls from fixed locations, which alternative, of course, takes away from the key advantage of the mobility advantage that is offered by mobile communication devices.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for systems and methods that can overcome the above drawbacks of the existing communication devices, and that can further enhance personal communications, as described below.